


winter winds.

by katarama



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bathing/Washing, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Future Fic, Hair Washing, Hot Chocolate, Hurt/Comfort, Pack in College, Stress Relief, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-24
Updated: 2016-02-24
Packaged: 2018-05-22 23:40:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6097732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katarama/pseuds/katarama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kira's backpack feels heavier on her back when she heads home, the textbooks and her laptop digging the straps of her bag into her shoulders.  She would feel it, if it weren’t for all the bulky layers she’s wearing.  She feels like she could play bumper cars in her big, puffy jacket, bouncing off surfaces harmlessly.  She feels heavy, though, and so, so tired.  She doesn’t have time for a nap.  She still has a third of a novel left to read for her English lit class and half of her paper still left to edit.</p><p>But Allison’s home, and it’s her saving grace.</p>
            </blockquote>





	winter winds.

**Author's Note:**

> For the hurt/comfort prompt for the femslash february challenge!

Winter wears Kira down.

It isn’t like she didn’t know what to expect.  She lived in the Northeast, trudged her way through enough New York winters to notice the difference.  She knew when she and Allison decided to go to Boston for undergrad that she’d be back where she was before.  

It doesn’t make it any easier.  The interminable greyness of it feels like a weight, the snow falling and falling and falling from the grey sky, blocking off the outside world and leaving her trapped trudging through trampled slush that quickly fades from white to ugly grey.  The cold is almost worse, wind so sharp biting it hurts her lungs, leaves her skin stinging even from the short walk from her apartment to class.  Winter is cruel and deceptive; even the brightest days, the days when the sun comes out of hiding, are dulled and chilled, the light providing no warmth.  

The worst months of winter aren’t the early ones, when the cold settles in and the days grow shorter.  The worst months are the Februaries, the Marches.  The months when there are brief rays of hope, a day when the thermometer pushes above 50 and some of the snow starts to melt, when people walk around in shorts like it’s the dead of summer.  It makes it even more brutal when the temperature plunges and another wave of snowstorms hits.

Allison jokes that Kira’s warm and sunshiny enough to brighten even the harshest winter day, and Kira blushes and kisses her cheek.  Kira appreciates the sentiment; Allison is sweet.  She’s a good girlfriend, encouraging and supportive and patient.  She tries so hard.  They both do, fumbling their way through things together.

It isn’t perfect, though, and on days like today, days when the weather shifts abruptly from 57 degrees Fahrenheit to 3 degrees Fahrenheit, -14 degrees wind chill factor, just getting out of bed to go to class is a real struggle.

She does it.  She bundles up, layers upon layers of clothes, her boots laced tight with her warmest knee socks and a pair of tights on underneath, a sweater and a hoodie and a coat, two pairs of gloves.  She’s little, and she gets cold easily.  She braves the cold and goes to class, takes a quiz in calculus and works on a paper in the common room of the science center.  She eats the lunch she packed for herself and struggles to stay awake through her afternoon class.

Her backpack feels heavier on her back when she heads home, the textbooks and her laptop digging the straps of her bag into her shoulders.  She would feel it, if it weren’t for all the bulky layers she’s wearing.  She feels like she could play bumper cars in her big, puffy jacket, bouncing off surfaces harmlessly.  She feels heavy, though, and so, so tired.  She doesn’t have time for a nap.  She still has a third of a novel left to read for her English lit class and half of her paper still left to edit.

But Allison’s home, and it’s her saving grace.

The heat in the apartment is cranked up on high, and Allison helps her strip her layers off before she melts.  Her nose runs and her cheeks pink and her hands thaw from the seconds it took her to unlock the apartment door without her warmest gloves protecting her hands.

Allison has milk warming for hot chocolate, and Kira gets so caught up in kissing her that she almost forgets it’s still on the burner.  Kira needs to apply another layer of chapstick, her lips cracked, but Allison doesn’t seem to mind.

“Why don’t you go run a bath,” she says.  “We can have hot chocolate in the tub.”

It sounds like everything Kira needs, so she goes ahead to the bathroom, knowing Allison will follow.

* * *

 

The only thing better about their apartment’s location, and the reason they both fork out as much as they do on rent, is the giant tub in the bathroom.  It’s not something that was there originally; the person who lived there before them paid a boatload to have it installed.  It was enough to sell the both of them on the apartment, though, because it’s so big that it fits both of them, if they curl up close.

Kira runs the water to get it to the right temperature and puts in the plug, letting the water slowly fill up the giant bathtub.  She throws in some of her favorite bubble bath and watches the water foam, the sweet, soothing smell of lavender filling up the room.  She knows it will make her drowsy, but Allison won’t let her doze off in the tub.

She’s stripped down to her bra and underwear when Allison joins her, setting their hot chocolate down next to the tub.  She runs her hands along Kira’s skin, her hands still warm from the mugs.

“You’re tense,” she tells Kira, and Kira hums her agreement, leaning into the touch.  Allison unhooks her bra, and Kira lets it slide off her arms, falling to the floor with the rest of her clothes.  Allison undresses while Kira removes her underwear.  Kira shivers, naked in the cooler bathroom, and Allison smiles.

“Go ahead and get in,” she says while she takes off her socks, and Kira steps carefully into the tub, dipping her feet in and slowly easing down, lowering until the water covers her calves, her thighs, her knees.  She leans back against the edge of the tub and holds her hands out for her mug of hot chocolate, savoring the first moments of a warm drink with her muscles untensed, of warmth and relaxation.  

Allison’s climbs in after her, Allison’s long limbs neatly fitting in around Kira’s shorter ones.  Allison’s hair is getting long again, the ends of her curls damp and looser in the water.  Bubbles pop around them as they drink their hot chocolate, Kira closing her eyes and listening to Allison’s voice as she talks about her day, about Skyping with Scott and Stiles and dealing with the landlord and all the makeup work her professor assigned after cancelling class.  Kira hears the satisfying clink of the mug set down on tile.  She opens her eyes to see Allison blowing at bubbles and watching them pop.

Kira giggles, and Allison smiles.

Kira’s favorite part isn’t the bubble bath or even just soaking with her girlfriend, though.  Her favorite part is when Allison reaches over and grabs Kira’s shampoo, when Kira turns so Allison can lower her gently down to the water, so they can get Kira’s short hair wet and Allison can run her fingers through it.  Allison lathers up shampoo, running her hands through Kira’s hair and gently rubbing at Kira’s scalp, the whole bathroom smelling of strawberries and cream.  The tension melts from Kira’s shoulders as Allison rubs, and Kira smiles when Allison places a quick kiss on the skin between her shoulderblades, right where Kira’s McCall Pack tattoo is.

Allison is careful when she rinses Kira’s hair, because soap in the eyes is never fun.  When it’s all washed out, though, Kira inches back between Allison’s legs, letting them curl around her and pull her so she’s leaning back against Allison’s bare chest.

“Today was a long day,” Kira admits as Allison’s arms wrap around her.  

“I know,” Allison says, because Allison always knows.  “Are you feeling any better now, though?”

“Yeah,” she says easily.  “Much better.”

In the safety and warmth of the tub, snuggled up in her girlfriend’s arms, she feels at home and at peace, and the cold of winter can’t reach her.  

**Author's Note:**

> On tumblr [here](sleepy-skittle.tumblr.com).


End file.
